1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to accessories for an archery bow, and in particular, to devices for engaging the forearm of an archer.
2. Description of Related Art
An archery bow may have a substantial draw weight, that is, a substantial force required to pull the string back and fully flex the bow. This force can produce torques that change the aiming of the arrow in elevation and azimuth. Moreover, these torques will abruptly change direction at the moment the string is released to launch the arrow. For this reason, a certain amount of angular rotation of the bow can be expected and tolerated when the string is released. Specifically, when the string is released the bow normally tends to rotate in a vertical plane with its upper tip tilting forward.
Improved accuracy is achieved if the archer does not grip the bow too tightly. A tight grip tends to apply undesirable torques to the bow. In a recommended shooting method, the hand holding the bow is kept relatively open so the bow passes though the crook between the thumb and forefinger to balance primarily against the heel of the palm. This relatively open grip avoids manual torques that might tend to undesirably rotate the bow azimuthally or elevationally when aiming an arrow. Instead, the bow takes a balanced position that enhances accuracy.
Repeatability is very important for accurate shooting. Archers will try to consistently orient their bow and bow string by using anchor points. A basic anchor point is the consistent placement of the archer's extended hand on the riser. Anchors also exist for the bow string. For example, an archer may always draw the bow string back so that the thumb touches a specific place on the archer's jaw. For this same purpose, some bow strings have a kisser button, a small button on the string that is drawn back to consistently touch, for example, a corner of the archer's mouth.
Modern bows have threaded sockets for accepting a variety of accessories. For example, stabilizers in the form of cantilevered weights can be attached to the bow to balance it and to increase its moment of inertia, in order to reduce undesirable bow rotations and vibrations. Also, a string vibration arrester mounted on the bow has a rod terminating with a notched cradle for stopping a released string at a neutral position and preventing vibration.
With a compound bow the string is part of a cable system and is suspended between cams on opposite ends of the bow. When the string is pulled the cables are drawn over the cams to produce a mechanical advantage. A cable guard can be used to push the cables to the side to avoid interference with the bow string in the nock of the arrow. This cable guard can take the form of a rod screwed into a threaded socket on the bow and extending rearwardly. The affected cables can engage the guard either directly or through a slide mounted on the guard.
Any accessory attached to a bow must not interfere with the ease of use. Often, a bow must be quickly grasped and raised when hunting. A hunter does not have the time to manipulate accessories when a target suddenly comes within range.
See also U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,572,312; 3,599,621; 4,787,361; 4,836,177; 4,976,250; 5,137,008; 5,349,937; 5,464,002; 5,531,211; 5,853,000; 6,173,707; 7,748,369; and 7,954,175.